Patti Digh on Calling, Desire Lines, and Course Creation (2026)

In 2009, Ruzuku co-founder Rick Cecil sat down with bestselling author, speaker, and educator Patti Digh (Life Is a Verb, Creative Is a Verb) as part of our foundational “From There to Here” archive. Patti left a lucrative corporate leadership career to create the legendary blog 37 Days, which grew from 12 readers to over 20,000 subscribers in six months following her stepfather’s sudden passing. For online course creators, Patti’s journey illuminates the deep psychology of finding what is uniquely yours to teach, overcoming the chronic tendency to minimize your expertise, and forging “desire lines” outside formulaic marketing dogma. On Ruzuku, courses built around authentic calling and integrated lesson discussions achieve an average 50.9% completion rate.

1. The Expertise You Won’t Claim

One of the most profound moments in the 2009 dialogue occurred when Rick Cecil challenged Patti on her hesitation to claim her professional identity:

“Help me understand why it is, when somebody asks you what you do for a living, you never say, ‘I’m a writer.’ You’ve written three books and published hundreds of articles. What bar would you have to have reached for you to be able to say that you’re a writer?”

Patti acknowledged the deep discomfort many experts feel:

“It’s real easy for us to minimize what we do in the world... There’s a great quote: ‘A writer is someone who longs to say something.’ That’s a true description of who I am.”

Over 14+ years of speaking with course creators, I see this exact hesitation weekly. Experienced therapists, master coaches, and seasoned corporate consultants repeatedly tell me: “I need one more certification before I can teach,” or “Who am I to charge for this course?”

The credential bar in your mind never stops moving upward. If you wait until you feel 100% entitled to teach, you will never publish your curriculum. If you long to teach a specific transformation—if you possess the ability to guide someone from confusion to clarity—that is all the qualification required to begin.

2. Single Intention: The Power of Starting with 12 Students

Patti started 37 Days not from a calculated market research survey, but from urgent emotional necessity following personal grief:

“I would literally sit every day and write for eight hours a day... I actually think that the single intention and the urgency that I felt around it was the thing that drove people to the work. I first sent it out to 12 friends... Within six months, there were between 15,000 and 20,000 people reading this blog.”

When course creators attempt to satisfy everyone, their curriculum becomes diluted, generic, and uninspiring. Courses with high completion rates on Ruzuku possess a single, undeniable intention:

• Clarity Over Scope: They solve one well-defined problem comprehensively rather than skimming twenty loosely related topics.
• Emotional Urgency: The creator communicates with conviction and personal vulnerability, making lessons compelling.
• Small Cohort Intimacy: Starting with 5 to 12 students allows educators to provide deep direct feedback, creating vocal brand advocates.

3. The Concept of “Desire Lines” in Course Architecture

Patti introduced a beautiful metaphor that every course creator should internalize:

“Do you spend your life going on the concrete path because that’s what you think you need to do, or do you make your own line, do you follow your own path?”

In urban planning, “desire lines” are the natural dirt trails worn into the grass by pedestrians taking the most direct, intuitive route instead of following rigid concrete sidewalks.

In online education, the “concrete path” consists of rigid high-pressure webinar funnels, fake scarcity countdown timers, and cookie-cutter video libraries. The most enduring educators step off that pavement:

• They teach in cohorts rather than forcing passive self-study.
• They embed discussions directly inside lessons so students learn collaboratively.
• They offer dedicated human support to ensure learners never feel abandoned.

4. Measuring What Truly Matters

Patti warned against the modern addiction to vanity metrics:

“A lot of people write to me and say, ‘Help me understand how I can build a successful blog? How many followers? How many books? How many cities?’ I think it’s very easy to focus on things that are easy to measure, but don’t really matter.”

A course business with 10,000 passive buyers and a 3% completion rate is fragile and exhausting—it requires continuous ad spend to replenish disillusioned students. A course business with 200 engaged students and a 50.9% completion rate is robust, profitable, and powered by organic word of mouth.

4-Stage Desire Line Course Protocol

4 High-Leverage Delivery Plays

3-Tier Creator Tech Stack

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you know what topic is truly yours to teach?

Pay attention to the ideas you return to with persistent urgency and emotional resonance rather than chasing trending keywords or generic market templates.

What are desire lines in educational course creation?

Desire lines represent the authentic, unpaved instructional paths creators forge by following their intuition and direct student needs rather than rigid marketing funnels.

Why do educators minimize their own expertise?

Experts suffer from moving goalposts, believing they need another certificate or credential before claiming authority, when students actually seek relatable guidance.

How many beta students do you need to test a signature course?

You only need 5 to 12 students. Patti Digh started with 12 readers before reaching 20,000; starting small provides deep intimacy and invaluable feedback.

Why do courses born from single intention achieve higher completion?

Courses with a singular, urgent focus avoid curriculum bloat, driving student engagement and yielding 50.9% average completion on Ruzuku.

How does vanity metrics chasing harm online educators?

Obsessing over follower counts and email list sizes distracts creators from deep transformational pedagogy and student outcomes.

Can you pilot a cohort course on Ruzuku for free?

Yes. Ruzuku offers a permanent free tier for up to 5 students with 0% platform fees, built-in live video rooms, and point-of-learning discussions.